Reality PlayWhere psychoanalysis meets arthttps://www.psychologytoday.com/
en-US30Sun, 01 Mar 2015 18:42:41 -0600Tue, 03 Mar 2015 12:45:48 -0600Blank Spaces of Memoryhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201503/blank-spaces-memory
Memory’s underpinnings have long been explored by artists and writers—from Klimt to Proust. Some contemporary works also deserve our attention.DementiaEnvironmentFalse MemoriesIdentityMemoryNeuroscienceTherapyTraumahttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201503/blank-spaces-memory#comments1071769 at http://psychologytoday.comSun, 01 Mar 2015 18:42:41 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Ordinary Crueltyhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201502/ordinary-cruelty
What makes good people do bad things? Can ordinary people be induced into behaving immorally? A movie about the famous Stanford Prison Experiment recently premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Here are some reflections about the movie and our susceptibility to both altruism and cruelty.AltruismChild DevelopmentCreativityEmbarrassmentEmpathyEnvironmentEthics and MoralityMatingParentingPersonalityResilienceSexTeamworkTraumahttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201502/ordinary-cruelty#comments1070614 at http://psychologytoday.comMon, 02 Feb 2015 23:11:44 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Mysteries of Biographyhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201409/mysteries-biography
A new book about Sigmund Freud and a documentary about the musician Nick Cave shed some light on the nature of biography.CareerChild DevelopmentCreativityFearFreudian PsychologyMediaMemoryPersonalityPsychoanalysisSleepUnconscioushttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201409/mysteries-biography#comments159410 at http://psychologytoday.comTue, 09 Sep 2014 21:35:34 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Sleep: The High Cost of Being Awakehttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201403/sleep-the-high-cost-being-awake
Sleep unmasks aspects of our nature that we may want to ignore. It is something we may want, but paradoxically can only get when we stop looking for it. We also often don't want it, and accept it begrudgingly.Consumer BehaviorCreativityDreamingEnvironmentEthics and MoralityFearHealthHypnosisMagical ThinkingPregnancyPunishmentRace and EthnicitySelf-HelpSleephttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201403/sleep-the-high-cost-being-awake#comments145352 at http://psychologytoday.comMon, 03 Mar 2014 13:06:13 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Confabulations of Everyday Lifehttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201402/confabulations-everyday-life
Can we ever give an honest account of our lives without embellishing the facts? Psychoanalysis helps us uncover ways in which the facts are concealed and history is censored. Confabulated memories are not just symptoms of neurological disease and injury. There are "everyday confabulations" that are endemic to our humanity.AddictionCareerCognitionCreativityDeceptionDreamingEnvironmentForgivenessFreudian PsychologyMemoryNeurosciencePersonalityPsychoanalysisUnconscioushttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201402/confabulations-everyday-life#comments143678 at http://psychologytoday.comSat, 08 Feb 2014 17:38:55 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.On Becoming a Digital Personhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201311/becoming-digital-person
As in the fictitious world of Dave Eggers's The Circle, we also live in a world where our personal information is being harvested more rapidly and more covertly than ever. We might wonder about how technology, commerce, and culture intersect to impact our own psychological well-being and sense of identity. What are the psychological drawbacks to being datafied?Consumer BehaviorCreativityEmpathyEthics and MoralityIdentityIntelligenceMediaMemoryPersonalityPoliticsSocial Lifehttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201311/becoming-digital-person#comments137090 at http://psychologytoday.comWed, 06 Nov 2013 20:23:09 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.The Economics of Bandwidthhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201309/the-economics-bandwidth
Scarcity is not only an economic problem. We also face a scarcity of psychological resources. With limited bandwidth, we are constrained in how much we can face. We can learn to be more economical when it comes to our psychological resources.Behavioral EconomicsCognitionEthics and MoralityFreudian PsychologyHappinessLonelinessMotivationParentinghttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201309/the-economics-bandwidth#comments133834 at http://psychologytoday.comSun, 22 Sep 2013 18:41:50 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.The Possibilities of Fictionhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201308/the-possibilities-fiction
Children not only have imaginary friends, but sometimes create imaginative universes–paracosms–that continue to nourish and sustain creativity throughout the lifespan.Child DevelopmentCognitionCreativityDreamingEnvironmentExtroversionFreudian PsychologyHappinessParentingTraumahttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201308/the-possibilities-fiction#comments130502 at http://psychologytoday.comSun, 04 Aug 2013 17:43:43 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.The Boston Tragedy: One Simple Suggestion for Our Kidshttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201304/the-boston-tragedy-one-simple-suggestion-our-kids
Repeated exposure to upsetting and increasingly vivid images in the news is clearly not helpful to children. In the face of so much that can be difficult to control, turning off the television is something any of us can do.AnxietyChild DevelopmentFearLaw and CrimeMediaParentingStressTraumahttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201304/the-boston-tragedy-one-simple-suggestion-our-kids#comments122612 at http://psychologytoday.comMon, 15 Apr 2013 17:52:16 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.In Praise of Frustrationhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201303/in-praise-frustration
Much has been said about how we praise children when they succeed. Recent research supports the view that praising a child's inherent qualities, rather than effort, may ultimately backfire. What about when children fail? Children may also need more experience with failure and greater fluency for talking about frustration.Child DevelopmentDreamingEmbarrassmentHappinessNarcissismParentingResilienceSelf-Esteemhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201303/in-praise-frustration#comments119460 at http://psychologytoday.comSun, 03 Mar 2013 18:35:02 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Are We About to Map the Entire Human Brain?https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201302/are-we-about-map-the-entire-human-brain
The Obama administration is about to announce a 10-year scientific project to map the human brain. The proposal, which may be announced as early as March, will include efforts to map the functions and activities of the billions of neurons in the human brain, much like the Human Genome Project.CognitionEthics and MoralityHealthNeurosciencePoliticshttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201302/are-we-about-map-the-entire-human-brain#comments118414 at http://psychologytoday.comMon, 18 Feb 2013 13:28:24 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.On the End of History Illusionhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201301/the-end-history-illusion
When we recall the past, we can easily see how much we've changed. When we look into the future, however, we imagine that we’ll be no different from who we are today. We tend to predict that our values, interests, and preferences will be the same. We are quite convinced that we’ll be the same tomorrow, the next day, and 10 years from now.BiasCognitionLaughterMarriageMemoryPersonalityPhilosophySelf-ControlTeamworkhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201301/the-end-history-illusion#comments116709 at http://psychologytoday.comSun, 27 Jan 2013 20:50:11 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.The Bright Side of Uncertaintyhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201211/the-bright-side-uncertainty
What would it mean to be capable of bearing uncertainty, doubt, and mystery–without what Keats called our “irritable reaching after fact and reason?” Are there unseen pleasures with being bewildered?BeautyCreativityDeceptionEnvironmentHappinessPhilosophyPositive PsychologyScentSelf-Helphttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201211/the-bright-side-uncertainty#comments111187 at http://psychologytoday.comSun, 18 Nov 2012 22:35:28 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.The Future of Nostalgiahttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201211/the-future-nostalgia
What has been the appeal of Apple's nostalgic design references and why are such images appealing to us in the first place? Does psychology offer ways of accounting for the allure of nostalgia in our technology?Behavioral EconomicsChild DevelopmentCognitionConsumer BehaviorCreativityFantasiesMediaPhilosophySocial Networkinghttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201211/the-future-nostalgia#comments110142 at http://psychologytoday.comSun, 04 Nov 2012 22:05:19 -0600Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.The Pleasures of Being in Disguisehttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201210/the-pleasures-being-in-disguise
Apart from its cultural history, there is something oddly compelling about our ritual of costuming. Our amusement in disguising ourselves from other people may be an echo of how we masquerade our own wishes and desires from ourselves.CreativityDeceptionEnvironmentEthics and MoralityFreudian PsychologyPersonalityReligionSocial Lifehttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201210/the-pleasures-being-in-disguise#comments109074 at http://psychologytoday.comSun, 21 Oct 2012 23:59:54 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Revisiting the Myth of Mental Illness: Some Thoughts on Thomas Szaszhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201209/revisiting-the-myth-mental-illness-some-thoughts-thomas-szasz
Thomas Szasz died this past week at the age of 92. His numerous writings have provided the philosophical basis for the antipsychiatry and patient advocate movements that began in the 1960s and have flourished ever since. What are the side effects of the medical model? Is Szasz too radical for a modern, neuroscience-based psychiatry?AnxietyCognitionDepressionEmpathyEnvironmentEthics and MoralityFreudian PsychologyHealthIntroversionPsychiatryPsychoanalysisPsychopharmacologySelf-HelpSexShynessSuicideTherapyhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201209/revisiting-the-myth-mental-illness-some-thoughts-thomas-szasz#comments106425 at http://psychologytoday.comMon, 17 Sep 2012 21:25:11 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.The Transitional Space of John Cagehttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201209/the-transitional-space-john-cage
The avant garde composer would have turned 100 this week and celebrations are being held throughout the world. What can we learn about creativity from John Cage? What, if anything, can psychoanalysis add to understanding his artistry?Child DevelopmentCreativityEnvironmentFreudian PsychologyPsychoanalysisReligionhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201209/the-transitional-space-john-cage#comments105283 at http://psychologytoday.comMon, 03 Sep 2012 15:46:45 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.In Defense of Blushinghttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201208/in-defense-blushing
So what exactly is this most peculiar and most human of all expressions? What do we communicate when we blush? Is there an upside to blushing? Finally, what, if anything, do we learn about ourselves by understanding the phenomenon of blushing?AnxietyCognitionDreamingEmbarrassmentEmpathyEvolutionary PsychologyIdentityPersonalitySexhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201208/in-defense-blushing#comments103657 at http://psychologytoday.comWed, 15 Aug 2012 22:51:27 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Curiosity, Here and Abroadhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201208/curiosity-here-and-abroad
While we are bound to learn from Curiosity, it can be revealing to reflect on what we find alluring about space missions in general and our excitement about this one in particular. Surely, there is not only a psychology of space exploration but also a psychology of space fascination.DreamingEnvironmentEvolutionary PsychologyFantasiesNarcissismSocial Lifehttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201208/curiosity-here-and-abroad#comments102920 at http://psychologytoday.comTue, 07 Aug 2012 00:24:50 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Being Amused by Apopheniahttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201207/being-amused-apophenia
CognitionDeceptionEnvironmentEvolutionary PsychologyParentingPoliticsPsychoanalysisTherapyhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201207/being-amused-apophenia#comments102436 at http://psychologytoday.comTue, 31 Jul 2012 21:43:49 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.The Grace of Accuracyhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201207/the-grace-accuracy
Child DevelopmentCreativityHealthMemoryPsychoanalysisTherapyhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201207/the-grace-accuracy#comments101989 at http://psychologytoday.comThu, 26 Jul 2012 22:42:33 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Home and its Illusionshttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201207/home-and-its-illusions
Child DevelopmentFreudian PsychologyMemoryNeurosciencePsychoanalysisRelationshipsSexSleephttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201207/home-and-its-illusions#comments101977 at http://psychologytoday.comThu, 26 Jul 2012 18:51:27 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.Empathy and its Discontentshttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201207/empathy-and-its-discontents
CognitionEmpathyEthics and MoralityFreudian PsychologyHumorIntelligenceNeuroscienceRelationshipsReligionSocial LifeSport and CompetitionUnconscioushttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reality-play/201207/empathy-and-its-discontents#comments101975 at http://psychologytoday.comThu, 26 Jul 2012 18:26:38 -0500Reality PlayBruce Poulsen Ph.D.